30" Capital Culinarian Manual MCOR304?

blackie68February 18, 2014

Does anyone know what the new changes are on the 30" Capital Culinarian Manual. (New model # MCOR304N). I heard they change/ replace the center cast iron grate to a stainless steel plate or something like that? Can't find a picture on capital web site showing new model, any one have a picture of it or info?

@ rayjuncajun, the link Is showing Capital Precision Series MCR304N which is sealed burner. Did capital do away with the open burner on the 30" manual clean Culinarian?
Looks like the back trim is gone too.

I was close to choosing to buy the 30" manual clean Culinarian based on seeing the former model (CGMR) with all cast iron grates. Stainless steel between burners seems like a downgrade. I got the same picture from a distributor that Chris_socal posted above, so I am afraid that the new model indeed has substituted stainless steel for cast iron in the middle of the top of the range. Looks unattractive to me and I imagine scratching it with pots. Given some persons' reports of the big burners being less than perfect for simmering in small pots, the small pot or simmer burner seems like an improvement. Question to those who know the Culinarian best (like Trevor Lawson), what if anything is improved in the MCOR model and what is not as good as the CGMR model?

Yes, per the company, to get the newest MCOR model with the center cast iron grate:
"Yes, please make sure when purchasing a unit the serial number ends in a letter Ã¢ÂÂCÃ¢ÂÂ. The units with the stainless steel in the middle will have a serial number that end in a Ã¢ÂÂBÃ¢ÂÂ."

Is anyone who is knowledgeable willing to share an opinion whether the new manual clean model is on balance better or worse than the old CGMR model (which seems to be for sale some places)? Or even whether the simmer burner is a good thing or not (since one can still order with 4 uniform burners if one does not want the simmer or small pot burner)? Is the simmer burner a 23K burner with fewer holes, or is it an 8K burner? Does having a smaller burner make calibrating burners and keeping them calibrated a problem?

Did Capital change anything else when they added back the middle cast iron grate? A spec sheet from October 2013 shows 25K burners not 23K???

FYI for anyone else out there who is shopping for a range, I have been told that the other differences between the old CGMR 304 and the MCOR 304 with the stainless steel strip in the middle are:

MCOR can be installed with vertical gas supply coming out of floor; MCOR has about 33% larger oven capacity and fits a commercial size cookie sheet at the cost of removal of the glass cover from the broiler (so the broiler element gets dirtier, is harder to clean); MCOR has the one 8K small pot or simmer burner; MCOR oven door construction is all stainless steel and glass with flat glass panel instead of porcelain and glass with a 1.5 inch porcelain window pack; the bake (bottom?) oven burner is flush in the MCOR instead of having 1.5 inch high oven bottom cover; flush wire mesh broiler element instead of flush wire mesh under glass; no gas shut off valve on the MCOR; no rear casters on the MCOR; 2 instead of 3 oven racks on the MCOR; MCOR has flush island trim with vertical venting instead of 3 inch island trim with front venting. I think that's all of them.

We got our 30-inch manual clean Culinarian a couple weeks ago and love it. It boils pasta water in no time and the broiler seems to work beautifully. We haven't played with the simmer burner yet but I was able to boil water very quickly using it on medium high heat. We did not know we had to request the cast iron center grates but were relieved when the stove arrived with them instead of the stainless piece. Also, little known fact.....we were able to order it in a custom RAL color (moss green) for an extra approx. $250. Yes, you read that right, you can order it in any of the hundreds of RAL colors. One downside: this thing took 17 weeks to arrive, considerably longer than the estimated 8-10 weeks.